Friday, March 23rd - Miraikan / Special Exhibit "Move into the wild life" (Animal Science Unit)
Student Admission/Parking Fee/Highway Fee: ¥1500 per child
*We will leave UST at 9:15 AM and arrive back to school around 2:00 PM
Please send your child's field trip money to school by Friday, March 16th. Thank you!
Are you ready for the field trip?
Please help your child bring these items to school on the day of the field trip:
- Regular snack (We will eat snack before leaving UST)
- Regular lunch (Students will bring their backpacks on the field trip. Inside they will have their lunch and water bottle. We will eat lunch at the field trip location 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM)
- Orange UST shirt
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PTCs will be scheduled for April 10th - April 12th after school. Conference times are scheduled for 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM. Please take a moment to look at the PTC schedule and add your name and your child's name on the day and time that works best for you.
PTC Sign Up Form - Click Here
Thank you!
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During Spelling this week we learned about bossy R (ir, ur, or, ar, er). Students participated in a Write the Room activity. They walked around the classroom to find words with these "hunks and chunks" and sorted them. This activity was sent home in your child's backpack.
During another Spelling activity I called out a word with an IR/UR, ER, OR, or an AR. We stretched the words with our fingers, then the students had to move to the location in the classroom with the correct "hunk and chunk" poster. For example, when I said "car" all the students walked to the AR poster. We practiced spelling these words correctly on the whiteboard.
Picture Graphs
This week we started a new Math chapter titled Picture Graphs and Bar Graphs. Students were introduced to picture graphs. I asked our class different survey questions and we practiced collecting and organizing the data as a picture graph. We also shared what we learned from the data in the picture graphs (Ex. Soccer has the most. Baseball has the fewest. Soccer has 5 more than baseball.)
Math Vocabulary
Data - Data is information that has numbers. Data can be shown in charts, tables, and graphs
Picture Graph - A picture graph uses pictures or symbols to show data.
Tally Mark - A tally mark is used to record each piece of data.
Tally Chart - A tally chart shows all the data collected using tally marks.
Bar Graph - A bar graph uses the length of bars and a scale to show data.
Most
Fewest
More
Fewer
Readers Meet the Characters in Our Books
Students have been learning a lot about characters in books! During Reading this week, students learned that readers can understand how character's feelings change by making text-to-self connections. We can say, "I would feel ___________ like the character did because ___________" or "I would not feel ___________ like the character did because ___________."
Students also practiced understanding character's feelings by comparing them to characters in other books. We read the books Owen and Chrysanthemum and noticed that sometimes characters feel the same way.
Another Reading focus this week was Readers understand the character's feelings by thinking about the lessons that the character learned in the story. We discussed that character's feelings can change when they learn a lesson. The books Chrysanthemum and Crabby Cat Goes to School helped students learn more about lessons.
Expository Writing
Our class started a new Writing unit this week. For the following week, students will work on writing an expository writing piece. Students learned that the word expository comes from the word explain, so expository writing explains something or tells how to do something. We brainstormed different types of expository writing, including a recipe, a set of instructions, and a list of directions.
Students started prewriting and writing their first draft of a how-to paragraph. To prepare for this task, we discussed the three traits that students will need to think about when writing a how-to paragraph.
Writing Traits
Ideas - Think of something you can explain.
Organization - Put the steps in order.
Conventions - Follow the writing rules.
Traditions We Share
This week we learned that families are alike and different. We identified different customs families share. We also learned about family and community celebrations.
Social Studies Vocabulary
Custom - the way people usually do something
Tradition - a way to do something that people pass down over time
Celebrate - do something special
Holiday - a special day
Earth's Resources
Students participated in two Science investigations this week.
Investigation #1: How do soils differ?
During this investigation, students observed and compared three soil samples (loam, clay, sand). We reviewed the properties of soil (color, texture, size and shape of bits) and students recorded their observations. This investigation prepared our class for Investigation #2.
We used three types of soil (loam, clay, sand), coffee filters, a measuring cup, plastic cups, and water to find out which soil holds the most water. Students worked together as a class to list the materials, share their hypothesis, and plan the test (What will we find out? What will we observe?). Students recorded their observations and ended the investigation by drawing conclusions (I learned...). We learned that clay holds the most water! Our last question was, "Which of these soils do you think would be best for growing plants?" We discussed that loam is the best because it holds the right amount of water a plant would need to survive. If the soil holds a lot of water, like clay and sand, then a plant would get too much water and it would not survive.
- Ms. Allison